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1. Blood and beauty
Cynthia Freeland
in Art Theory: A Very Short Introduction
‘Blood and beauty’ examines why blood has been used in so much art. Artwork in recent years has incorporated a lot of horror. Photographers have shown corpses or the grisly severed heads of ...
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Aesthetics: A Very Short Introduction
Bence Nanay
Aesthetics is a branch of philosophy that explores the nature of art, beauty, and taste. It doesn’t just consider traditional artistic experiences such as artworks in a museum or an opera ...
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10. Can there be objectivity in taste?
Stephen Gaukroger
in Objectivity: A Very Short Introduction
‘Can there be objectivity in taste?’ considers aesthetics. What are the features of aesthetic objectivity? It may appear that issues in aesthetics are similar to ethics. However, the single ...
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Conclusion
John Dunn
in Locke: A Very Short Introduction
The ‘Conclusion’ reviews the mission of John Locke's philosophy. For Locke, the task of a philosopher was to prove that the truth was independent of human desires and tastes, and that at ...
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2. I like it!
John Krebs
in Food: A Very Short Introduction
How did variations in cuisine originate? What influences our taste for certain foods over others? Are our preferences the result of culture, upbringing, genes, or are they learnt? ‘I like ...
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7. Art and erōs
Roger Scruton
in Beauty: A Very Short Introduction
‘Art and eros’ focuses on painting, in order to distinguish between erotic art and sexual fantasy. The Platonic view, that eros is the governing principle of beauty in all its forms, ...
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5. The One Thing Needful
Michael Tanner
in Nietzsche: A Very Short Introduction
‘The One Thing Needful’ is concerned with the concepts of style, culture, and character. Excerpts from The Gay Science are provided to illustrate Nietzsche's standpoint. What Nietzsche is ...
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Postlude: Nietzsche and Life Insurance
Michael Tanner
in Nietzsche: A Very Short Introduction
The ‘Postlude’ enlarges on some points introduced throughout the book and raises some fundamental questions about Nietzsche's procedures and his views, questions which are often elementary ...
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2. Paradigms and purposes
Cynthia Freeland
in Art Theory: A Very Short Introduction
Contemporary artists who create work using blood, urine, maggots, and plastic surgery are successors of past artists who took sex, violence, and war as their subjects. ‘Paradigms and ...
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6. Taste and order
Roger Scruton
in Beauty: A Very Short Introduction
In a democratic culture, it may seem presumptuous to claim to have better taste than someone else. According to ‘Taste and order’, taste is intimately bound up with our personal life and ...
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4. Money, markets, museums
Cynthia Freeland
in Art Theory: A Very Short Introduction
‘Money, markets, museums’ explores relations among artistic, educational, civic, commercial, and spiritual values and the impact of corporations, groups, nations, and wealthy individuals ...
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Objectivity: A Very Short Introduction
Stephen Gaukroger
Objectivity: A Very Short Introduction explores the theoretical and practical problems of objectivity by assessing the basic questions raised by it. Is objectivity possible? ...
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4. Sensation
Jamie A. Davies
in Human Physiology: A Very Short Introduction
This chapter examines sensation, which is a catch-all term for monitoring any state and feeding it into a physiological process. When people talk of their ‘senses’ they usually mean the ...
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Nietzsche: A Very Short Introduction
Michael Tanner
The philosophy of Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900) was almost wholly neglected during his sane life, but since then he has been appropriated as an icon by an astonishingly diverse spectrum ...
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Art Theory: A Very Short Introduction
Cynthia Freeland
In today's art world many strange, even shocking, things qualify as art. Art Theory: A Very Short Introduction discusses beauty, blood, culture, money, museums, sex, and politics, ...
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Introduction
Cynthia Freeland
in Art Theory: A Very Short Introduction
Art Theory: A Very Short Introduction is an exploration of art, what it means, and why we value it. It examines topics in the field loosely called art theory: ritual theory, ...
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Beauty: A Very Short Introduction
Roger Scruton
Beauty: A Very Short Introduction explores the concept of beauty, asking what makes an object — either in art, in nature, or the human form — beautiful. It strongly refutes the ...
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